What do you think of corruption? I mean, how corrupt do you think is your country? Is corruption in your country growing or decreasing? What countries have the highest level of corruption and which are least corrupt?
According to Transparency International the level of corruption in Chile is lower than in the US, do you think this is true?
I look forward to your non-corrupt replies.
Regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]
Without wishing to dodge the issue I would say it’s difficult to assess the extent of corruption in your own backyard because if you do live in a corrupt society, you will probably be prevented from finding out the amount of corruption. As for the UK we are probably no worse or better than a hundred other countries. What I have noticed over the years is that whereas in the past the true extent of corruption/corruption was not found out until years later, nowadays politicians retire and five minutes later they’re shooting their mouths off about all the jiggery-pokery that was undertaken by others (not by them of course!) and some of these ‘others’ are still in positions of authority. Interestingly enough the outgoing (not quite gone) Prime Minister claimed that his government (he came to power in 1997) would be ‘whiter than white’ but from where I sit I can see an awful lot of dirty washing.
After Rose Revolution corruption level is decreasing,in my Country,but it is still high…may be still very high…
I think : Switzerland,Germany,USA,UK are Countries where the level is very low…
Highest level in Russia…
I’ve been to Russia many times,believe me, Corruption level is very high there…
Che Gevara - I now your negative attitude to Russia, but why you say so categorically?
Do you know situations in other countries or you compare only Russia and Georgia?
why do you think so?
PS: One provocative question:
Which goods does Georgia produce now?
I think in general, countries that truly have free press and freedom of speech are the ones that are the least corrupt. While sometimes the media bugs the heck out of me for “distorting the truth (according to me)”, I love having them around to keep the government in check.
Konstantin
My negative attitude to Russian Government,not Country Russia…and have many reasons… Do you want to be reminded ?
What do you mean which goods I can not count ,too many…
Most known Georgian wine ,Georgian mineral waters…
Every Russian knows there is a great corruption in Russian Government,Court,Police e.t.c
Some of them confess,others don’t … Do you ?
I don?t think that a free press guarantees less corruption. Just, the people possibly have to be much smarter to reach their goals.
As for the freedom of speech: it depends on the place where you take that right, don?t you think? Just a hilarious up to date example. While the G8-Minsters had a conference anywhere in Germany and one topic should have been environment-protection there were some people who planned a peaceful demonstration of their interests. That people weren?t allowed their fredom of speech -by a sentence of the Supreme German Court- near the location of the conference. The demonstrants needed to take their right of freedom of speech anywhere some kilometers apart. Of course the free German press reported about that demonstration but does anyone think that the ministers had been impressed by that and would have come to a result? :lol:
Basically I think corruption is bad, very bad. But I also think it’s all about using and appreciating the system. If what you have is a corrupt system or a bias system, I say play along, use it. I prefer practicality over principle.
Now people might say without principles, I don’t have dignity. But to me, dignity matters only when both parties appreciate it.
If your oppenent is crooked, you have to be crooked to win.
That is my anwer to your first question. The rest are too hard for me.
I absolutely agree with you, it doesn’t guarantee less corruption but it does help a whole lot. I just read the local Orange County, California, USA newspaper today and it has a huge expose about how some Orange County supervisors were spending thousands of dollars on extravagent office furnitures. I bet you these supervisors are scrambling right now and you know what? I will now watch these guys and probably won’t vote for them in the future. I guess I forgot to mention that free press’ effect on corruption will work only in countries that the people can do something about it, like impeaching or voting corrupt people out of office --something I take for granted in the USA. If the officials can get away with corruption with impunity, all is lost.
Hello Torsten.
Generally speaking corruption is very serious in China. Most chinese hate corruption but at the same time many chinese become dumb about corruption,because there are so many. In chinese we say"If one remains calm upon seeing strange things , the strangeness will do no harm."
I know those governors are the ones who become rich first along with business men in china.
China is trying to control corruption and the chinese government is making great efforts to correct the mistakes but seems very difficult.Before the governors called themselves as the servant of the people and people are the masters of the country, but the servants are richer than their masters.
Ridiculous.
when Chairman Mao was the leader of the country, an official will be dismissed, be sent to prison or even be killed just because of a little sum of corrupted money.
First of all, please excuse my being late, I?m quite busy!
Well, it?s better to get aware the mess that happens after it happened than never. Just,the best I think, would be the mess wouldn?t happen. Imagine, a former chancellor of the German federation (more than 16 years) peculated 11 million Deutsch Marks of his party. Just to protect the party for paying taxes for that money. Now, as long as he had been chancellor he couldn?t be punished and later he was sentenced an amount of 4 million Deutsch Marks. 2 millions had been collected by a news paper and the rest he was walved. :shock:
Trust in me, that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Nonetheless, please keep me up to date what happened to the supervisors of Orange County!
Not being bearish but realist
Michael
P.S. Have I missed the opportunity to know your correct name?
Hello Aleaf,may i know your nationality first? If you from that China,then i do sympathize what you are suffering.
I know there are few countries practise socialism policy like China now,actually,the governors of those countries even unable to tell the superiority of socialism at all.
I had great respect for chairman Mao and i felt great anxiety about the second period govt’s decision and i despaired of what the third period govt did,and it’s completely unworthy to discuss the current governors’ doings for now.
Only people in the dark China,they may aware of that–“If one remains calm upon seeing strange things , the strangeness will do no harm”–as Aleaf said,but the strangeness have been harming at all time. My god…they ever told us that people are their masters,and the Communist Party is our servant,Howe’er,what’s the actuality?
hi guys!
To be perfectly frank,I think corruption will be in every countries at any time!!And in china,it is so usual to hear that the corruption in government! as a chinese i do not feel shock to hear corruption news around me!the chinese people will get used to it!
I doubt the savior will appear.The savior is the chinese people. As the awareness of chinese people improving constantly, Chinese government will do its best to control corruption under the pressure from people if it doesn’t want to lost its governess in china.
[color=darkblue]To be perfectly frank,I think corruption will be in every countries at any time!!And in china
I agree with neverland.There is not a single country without corruption.
[color=darkblue]the chinese people will get used to it!
And as for the people who say that there is corruption in every country, that’s true. However, in some countries corruption is relatively minimal, and in some other countries, like China or many Middle Eastern or African countries, corruption is absolutely spectacular.
Some years ago, an Australian businessman was arrested by the Chinese authorities for supposedly embezzling from his own company. He wasn’t embezzling, and the real issue was that Deng Xiao Ping’s niece wanted the company for herself. The man’s company was taken away from him (and given to Deng Xiao Ping’s niece), and he served six years of an 18 year prison sentence, before diplomatic pressure from Australia got him out. You can read a little bit about the case here:
My point is that an incident of corruption like this would be unthinkable in most Western countries. It just couldn’t happen in Germany, Holland, France, Australia, or in any country that has a free press and free elections.
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I see favoritism as a kind of corruption, too. There was an article in the local paper the other day about a local council woman who had given a job in the city government to her niece. In doing so, she had passed over other applicants who were far more qualified. In fact, the niece lacked a number of the required skills as stated in the job description. It took less than two weeks for this to come to light. The woman was forced to fire her niece and fill the position with someone having the required background and skills.
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Well, it seems it wasn’t viewed as a crime in this case. There was no mention of the woman being charged with anything at all. She was simply ordered to fire her niece.